Beautiful Mistakes

"I'm not the only one who's cheated, Julie. In fact, I'm not even the first. I don't suppose you ever heard about Emma's senior year spring break in Miami?"

Not really wanting to, Julie said, "Can't say that I have."

He looked like he was going to tell a story, but then he said, "Seriously, am I allowed to come in?"

Reluctantly, Julie took a step back and let him come in, then she quickly debated whether or not she should call Aaron to tell him Matt was there so he didn't come home and get ridiculously pissed off because she was in the apartment with Matt without adult supervision.

Deciding against it, she settled for keeping her distance.

"Well, some of her friends were doing the spring break in Miami thing, and Emma wanted to go but I didn't have the money, so she went without me. She was drinking and partying basically the whole week, and then at like three in the morning on the Friday night before they were coming home one of her friends called me freaking out, asking me if I had heard from Emma because she had disappeared and she wasn't answering her phone. I tried to call her like 16 times, no exaggeration, and nothing, so I'm talking to her friend the whole time trying to get her to sober up enough to answer

the basic questions—where was the last place you saw her? Was she with anyone? Did she have her phone on her? Finally at about six in the morning this girl finds Emma, naked, strung out on something, and lying on the floor next to some naked guy who had bought her a drink earlier at the bar. Emma swears up and down she doesn't remember anything that happened, but I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to figure it out."

A bit reluctantly, Julie admitted, "Well, that does suck. However, it was before you married her, right? You could have left."

"I know," he said, looking at Anna as she drummed on Julie's hands.

"Even this weekend, this trip to New York—she's going to New York a lot more now than she did before. Funny thing is, every time she's going to meet with the same artist. I'm pretty sure she's sleeping with him. Ironically, she brought home one of his paintings last time, so while she's gone I'm going to have to look at the big ugly canvas that she overpaid for last time she went to see him."

"Or she could just be doing her job," Julie suggested.

"She bought new lingerie before the trip—it wasn't for my benefit."

"Maybe she wants you to think she's cheating so that you feel a little bit of the same hurt."

With an almost paternal smile, he said, "There you go being naïve again."

Shaking her head, Julie said, "If you guys are so unhappy, I really just don't see why you're still together. I don't see how it could be good for Anna to be raised with you guys as a model for relationships."

"It's probably not," he admitted. "Anna would probably be better off if we split up… if only I thought Emma would play fair… but Emma doesn't play fair, you should know that by now. She's made it perfectly clear that if I try to leave, she's leaving and she's taking Anna with her—even though she really has no use for her, and she would just have Anna raised by a nanny."

"Have you guys discussed this?" Julie asked, surprised.

"Discuss is a generous term," he remarked ironically. "More like… Emma laid out the terms of our marriage and I had to deal with them."

She knew it wasn't a good idea to take the bait, but she was also curious as to what the terms were. Getting involved even in a conversation about Matt's marriage—which she didn't care about—would only leave open the possibility of Aaron coming home to Julie and Matt discussing his problems like they were old friends.

Not a good plan.

However, Matt didn't seem to need any prodding. At her silence, he continued, "I asked her if we could just… take a break. Maybe spend some time apart. I've never wanted to leave her before, but I'm just so…damn unhappy."

She would not sympathize. She refused. Instead, she held her tongue and tried to keep her face free of expression.

"Anyway, she figured I wanted to leave so I could try to come after you—she knows I've always wanted more kids, and she didn't really even want one, so being pregnant would be more motivation for me to leave an already unhappy marriage. Well, knowing that Anna is the way to get to me, she informed me that she got a permanent job offer in New York, and if I wanted to 'take a break' then she was going to take the job, and she and Anna were going to be moving there within the month."

Despite her vow not to sympathize, she still managed to find herself astounded yet again at what a bitch Emma could be. It was like she shouldn't even be surprised anymore, but still she was.

"If she doesn't even want kids and you do, why should she take Anna?" Julie replied.

"Because it would hurt me," he said simply.

Before Julie had a chance to reply, she heard a key in the lock and then the door opened and Aaron walked inside, stopping and scowling as he saw Matt standing in his living room.

"What are you doing here?" Aaron asked, looking at the clock.

"Picking up my daughter," Matt responded.

"Aren't you a little early?"